The Use of Social Media as Part of a Transmedia Storytelling Strategy in WWE’s Professional Wrestling

Abstract

This paper aims at exploring the ways social media and new technologies are currently used within professional wrestling and how this model is exploited to create transmedia storytelling strategies. The first chapter is an introduction to the world of professional wrestling and its main promotion, World Wrestling Entertainment. In the second chapter, the author focuses on the storytelling within wrestling, introducing the concept of kayfabe, highlighting similarities in narrative between wrestling and serialized drama, but also their differences, bringing out the active role of the audience in wrestling. Then, attention is paid to how WWE in particular has managed to succeed in transmedia storytelling, exporting its content from TV shows and live performances to a wide range of other media and products. Finally, before the conclusions, the author analyzes the different uses of social media within wrestling, arguing that they impact kayfabe and allow the audience to change scenarios and storylines.